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1822 May 13
Q. Does not the consideration derived from custom present a
sufficient reason for the exclusion here in question
A. Certainly not: for the times in which custom had its commencement
were times of barbarian immaturity, inferior to the present in all points bearing
relation to government. Forms of Governments in general, and the feudal Government
/form/ in particular had their origin in war and conquest In war necessity gave the
command of all to a single chief; in peace, which in those days was never free from
apprehensions of war, habit and providence /prudence/ concurred in keeping it in the
same hands. The female sex at all ages less fit for war than the male, is during the
time of fertility rendered in a more particular degree unfit by the weaknesses
attached to gestation and parturition and lactation.
When monarchical despotism received for the first time its mitigation
from a sort of humble and servile democracy operating by delegation, it was because
the continually experienced impossibility of extracting money time enough from
unwilling contributors drove them into the practice of trying to extract it from
willing ones, who thereupon received /were raised/ a certain degree of importance,
and in return for money to receive a certain degree of effective power disguised
under the appearance of humble influence. These male slaves, heads of the several
families possessed in small measure /quantity/ /degree/ of appropriate aptitude,
their female slaves, their female relatives, none. To the males of the /each/ family
the fatigue and perils of journeys to and from the seat of husbandry and traffic to
the seat of power were endurable, to the females not. /unendurable./ From an /a
delegated/ assembly composed of males and females promiscuously nothing but confusion
and ridicule could have ensued. Thus it was that political power in all its forms and
degrees came to be engrossed by the males.
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Title: [1822 May 29 Economy etc In]Description: 1822 May 29 Economy etc In comparison of the male sex by physical constitution, the female sex is in a variety of particulars rendered generally unfit for war: witness in particular the times of gestation, parturition, childbed. But in England as in every country the original state of man in so far back as history presents it to us has been a state of war. The more barbarous the more savage the state of the human mind the worse of course has been every the condition of the weaker sex. Injustice and Harshness to the weak is among the most prominent characters of primaeval barbarism: justice and mildness to /towards/ the weak has every where encreased in proportion as civilization has advanced Not but that in England as elsewhere, the history of war has presented at one time or other the spectacle of a female leader. But in the most perfect form of ordinary war the place of the leader usually is as it usually ought to be, in comparison of all others a place of safety. By no state of society has any such scene ever been presented as that of an army or so much as any part of an army composed either in the whole or in any part (individual and undetected intruders excepted) composed of females In Saxon times no females in any Wittenagemote In Norman times no females in any Council of Barons No females in that House, which ere the modern and new rotten mushroom sprung up was the only one In the infancy of the Lower House /Assembly/ when the chief and at first almost the sole business of it was to afford /yield/ money, or rather to afford /yield/ wool that money might be made of it the ascendant of the male sex was in all matters so universal, that for any town to look upon an agent of this sex as possessing any chance of being received with any degree of seriousness, received in an assembly of which the vast majority to say no more were sure to be exclusively composed of the other was out of all probability. Thus commenced /began the reign of custom -/ the exclusionary custom, and in that Assembly no individual interest tending to produce rebellion to that <...> <...> <...> the same blind cause that has kept political power in the hands of one individual of /in/ the whole community /species/ has kept it out of the hands of one half of the whole species.
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Title: [1822 May 13 Economy etc Q.]Description: 1822 May 13 Economy etc Q. Does the greatest happiness principle require that the female sex should be excluded from a participation in this function? A. /A. Not any more than males./ Yes: if /No: unless/ persons of the female sex are not members of the community if their happiness forms no portion of the universal happiness - their interest of the universal interest: or the state of their minds such as to demonstate them to be irremediably incapable of taking /incapacitated from giving/ the direction to their own conduct without detriment to their own interest As to intellectual aptitude, no reason can be assigned /has ever been assigned/ why in respect of that branch of appropriate aptitude this half of the species ought to be deemed inferior to the other. Of experience - of experience /of experience as far as it goes/ as applied to the highest situation in the scale of power operative power the decision is rather /more/ in favour rather of the female sex than of the male. In no two male reigns was England as prosperous as in the two female reigns of Elizabeth and Ann. As to Ann whatever was the cause it was more prosperous than that of her immediate male predecessor, a man as unamiable as she was amiable. In intellectual aptitude Elizabeth of England shewed herself in an incontestable degree superior to her immediate successor and even to the nearest of her male and adult predecessors. If Ann was weak she was not more so than her two immediate successors both males. If Mary put men to death for what was called religion so did her father, and so did her next male successor: if Queen Mary put men to death for what was called religion, so did Chief Justice Hale, the saint and hero of English lawyers, for what was called Witchcraft. As to intellectual aptitude considered as applied to the field of thought and action at large two points require to be considered, in the first place among writers for example in how small a degree the superiority is on the side of the male sex. in the next place how small the number of those of the female sex whom laws and institutions have left unexcluded from the competition in comparison of those whom they have excluded. They might be unapt for exercise of supreme operative power or a share in it, and yet not be so for exercise of constitutive power in relation to supreme operative power. But they can not be unapt for exercise of supreme constitutive power i.e. constitutive power with relation to supreme operative power, and at the same time apt with relation to supreme operative power.
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Title: [1818 Jan 3 Not Paul III. Doctrine]Description: 1818 Jan 3 Not Paul III. Doctrine Ch. Asceticism ยง. 2. Females slighted Upon a closer inspection it will be seen that from the eccentric propensity the influence of the female sex has more to gain than to lose. Rival compared with rival much more formidable to the wedded female is a person of her own sex than any person of the opposite sex can ever be. The space in the field of life to which the eccentric propensity commonly applies itself is extremely limited /narrow/. In the days of imperial Rome, when all matters of this sort were settled by established custom, and where a seraglio /harem/ of the male sex formed an ordinary part of the establishment of a man of rank and opulence, no sooner had a member of such a fraternity /an establishment/ passed his twentieth year that he passed into a particular class distinguished by a special appellative exoletus superannuated he was put upon the superannuated list. Thus ephemeral were the attractions of the male in the eyes of the male: whereas in these same eyes the duration of those of the female has as every one knows no bounds. It is in the place of the venal female only and not in the place of her of whose charms possession is not to be obtained on any other terms than those of a union made permanent by law that those of the male venal or not venal were ever seen to occupy.
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